Where you go, There you are

In an attempt to run away from our miseries, we seek various ways to distract ourselves from deeper feelings. We submerge in endless music; stuff ourselves with food and alcohol; seek thrilling adventures; use games, drugs, sex; fill our minds with opinions after opinions; etc… The list goes on.

When the consciousness have had enough distracting experience, or when the emotions are in unbearable pain, then we start to seek something different, hope for something stable. We want happiness that is lasting, we yearn for the contentment that does not fade.

Have you noticed – no matter where you go, what you do, THERE YOU ARE!

I’m hang gliding over the pacific ocean. Photo by @flytpg

What does it mean?

Most of us are a bag of likes and dislikes, pain triggers governed by memories. Our memories reside in our heads, and emotions can be triggered at anytime by someone or something. We move in life as a ticking bomb waiting to go off. And this we carry with us no matter where we are, and no matter what we do. It is always the background noise trying to direct our conscious and unconscious decisions. In a way, we move as slaves to our past.

No matter where you go, no matter what you do, you carry this bag of burden with you. The load of karma.

I’ve seen some people jump into new relationships and end up repeating the same toxic patterns after the honeymoon phase wore off. I’ve seen others move to paradise thinking that is the way to their salvation but only to find themselves unhappy again. I’ve chatted with top photographers and best flying instructors only to find out their seeming achievements do not produce lasting happiness either.

Our karma holds us hostage. Only when carrying this bag of burden becomes too painful, do we ask ourselves the question, “how do we shed this burden, gain stability and find unfading contentment?”

Where you go, There you are.

Maybe the equation starts with the variable called “you”.

All the worlds religions and spirituality are pointing in the same direction – a place of stability where we can enter everlasting “heaven”. Then why only about one out of 15 million succeed? Perhaps the secret is we waste our energy looking outwardly instead of turning the attention within. Who is this “I”?

“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”

– Carl Jung

“Find ecstasy within yourself. It is not out there. It is in your innermost flowering. The one you are looking for is you.”

– Osho